eScoop - Issue 3 - Summer 2015

Issue 3 July 2015
eScoop
OSBN Members Magazine
Join OSBN small business community at www.osbn.ca
Sketch On Boards And
Make It Compelling
By Grace Nasralla, Operations Manager at e-presence Consultants Inc.
The same message can be relayed using different mediums to
result in a different effect with each medium used. This is the art of
effective communication!
e-mail marketing can be an effective marketing medium relaying not
only one message but few messages at a time and to a huge crowd
of people. Social Media is also an effective marketing medium used
for mass communication; however, its message outcome has a
totally different effect than e-mail marketing. Each communication
medium has its own purposes and can be used to achieve different
goals and objectives.
A fun and persuasive medium whose idea is obtained from using
the classroom or boardroom whiteboard is the whiteboard video
communication medium. Whiteboard videos have been a growing
trend in 2014 as it captivates the viewer and triggers engagement.
The benefits of using Whiteboard Videos as a marketing tool
definitely outweigh the cost. Visit e-presence Consultants Inc’s
youtube channel to view some of our Whiteboard videos.
https://www.youtube.com/user/epresenceConsultants
Article Contributors
Grace Nasralla
OSBN Founder
@gracenasralla
Claudia Adhair
Transform & Perform
@Claudia_Adair
William Ramdass
Sales Rep, Royal LePage
@WRamdass
Lisa Hess-Rodrigues
MAWAZO Marketing
@MawazoMarketing
Nigel Wrench
Printing Depot
@printingyourway
“Networking is marketing. Marketing yourself, marketing
your uniqueness, marketing what you stand for “
- Christine Comaford-Lynch

eScoop – Issue 3 July 2015
The “Wind In Your Sales”
Creating Your “Signature Selling Style!”
By Claudia Adair, Founder of Transform & Perform Coaching/Consulting
After I graduated from university I landed a respectable job as a
trainer in the banking industry. As I settled into my first career I
noticed, that wherever I was, sales people stood out. They always
seemed to be having fun. They seemed so free – I wanted that too.
Eventually I traded in my bank suit for an outside sales job.
Everyone thought I’d lost my mind, giving up such a reliable job –
for this. In 3 years, I had worked for 8 companies. I’d been fired,
discouraged, depressed, underpaid and overworked. Reality was
sinking in. I was NOT a natural at sales.
Create A Selling Message
Something about sales just didn’t sit well with me. Still, I wasn’t
willing to give up that dream of freedom. So, how was I going to
make this work? Instinctively I aligned my values and strengths
with my selling approach.
Leveraging Personal Values:
I realized I didn’t just want to sell… I wanted to contribute. Eureka!
Sales in training and development! This was in alignment with my
values. Selling while empowering those I’m selling to – it’s so
Continued Page 3
Business Promotional
Whiteboard Videos
PROMOTE WITH STYLE!
For more information call
647.226.7313
OSBN SMALL BUSINESS
NETWORKING EVENT
April 29, 2015
Business Networking
A network of business
contacts that connect for
the purpose of acquiring
leads, exchanging
referrals and increasing
sales revenue
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eScoop – Issue 3 July 2015
Cont. The “Wind In Your Sales”
Cont. Page 2
obvious now. I chose to help under or unemployed
adults choose career training programs that would
support their life dreams and goals.
Leveraging Personal Strengths:
My prospects had no money and no future, had to
borrow thousands to go to school, then study for up
to a year before they could even apply for work!
Selling was, to say the least, complex. My strengths
served me and served my clients. Specifically:
• Honesty. When I enrolled a client I had to
“look them in the eye” in the hallway for up
to 12 months! If I wasn’t inclined to be
honest I wouldn’t have lasted long in this
environment. Honesty is impactful,
compelling AND rarely dismantles the sale.
• Authenticity. Scripts, rebuttals and “sales
lines” have never worked for me. Attempts
to “spin” the client into changing their mind
felt awkward and made my clients
uncomfortable. Instead, I became an expert
on the “decision making process” and was
deeply curious about what was on their
mind.
• Open-mindedness. My clients didn’t feel
judged. This made it easier for them to share
everything that was on their mind. When all
was revealed I was in a better position to preempt
objections and provide a solution that
resonated. Secondly, I could see the
unfulfilled potential of my clients and they
could feel this. This “infusion of confidence”
helped many people take courageous and lifechanging
steps.
• Critical Thinking. I could step into the
customer’s shoes and look at their situation
from all sides. I addressed all issues –
including poor fitting solutions – in real time.
A Good team and an
active network will
promote amazing
This type of transparency built trust and
supported confident decision making.
results
• Gratitude. In time I stopped freaking out
about the quality of the lead and learned how
to look for the “gift” in every conversation. I
discovered that it wasn’t necessary to close
the deal to get a referral.
I established a “signature selling style” that inspired
client’s to take action and that, frankly, made it easy
for me to jump out of bed in the morning to go to
work! My approach led to 20+ years of success in
sales and sales leadership.
You too can create your “signature selling style”
and it starts with being clear on what your personal
values and strengths are.
- www.transformandperform.ca
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eScoop – Issue 3 July 2015
Phantom Offers In Real Estate
By William Ramdass, Sales Representative at Royal LePage
A phantom is a ghost, something that does not exist. In real estate, in a
heated market, there have been phantom offers... Example: your home
is listed for sale and your realtor hints to a prospective buyer that offers
have been received or are imminent. In fact this is not so. Now the
unsuspecting realtor is led to believe they are in a competitive situation
and, upon briefing their client, they decide to increase their offer.
Is this practice ethical or unethical? In my opinion, it is unethical.
Any payment or value realized by false means is unethical, regardless
of the fact that a seller representative (the listing agent) has a general
obligation to advance his/her client’s best interests which I take to
mean negotiate the highest possible price (expectedly in the spirit of
integrity and honesty).
Thanks to Bill 55, Stronger Protection for Ontario Consumers Act,
2013 - Changes for handling of offers” these so-called phantom offers
are now a (provincial) violation in Ontario effective from July 1st,
2015.
The Bill directs that real estate sales representatives cannot represent an
unsigned offer, and obligates listing representatives to provide their
brokerages with either a copy of all offers received or a RECO
qualified offer summary form (OREA Form 801). My brokerage firm,
Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., immediately distributed inhouse
a well-detailed policy and procedures manual covering every
aspect of compliance as it relates to reps. So, phantom offers are no
longer a worry for agents representing buyers.
Here is an outline of the changes taken from RECO website:
• Offers must be made in writing. Please keep in mind that a
written offer must be signed to be valid.
• A registrant cannot indicate that they have an offer, unless they
have a written offer.
• The seller’s brokerage must keep a record of all written offers
that it receives.
For more information on real estate issue visit my website at
www.williamramdass.ca
Bidding Wars is a continuation of this article written by William
Ramdass, Sales Representative at Royal LePage.
Bidding Wars
In the current Greater Toronto
Area market, bidding wars on
single family homes are
commonplace. A buyer caught up
in one of these wars is in a stressful
situation, dueling while
blindfolded. I saw a buyer who,
seeing several buyers’ reps in the
room, unnecessarily upped her bid
2 or 3 times in the space of about
30 minutes, ultimately paying
more than $120,000 over the listed
price of about $800,000. This was a
buyer who had recently lost at least
one other bidding war, probably
several more. By now she was so
angry that she made an emotional
decision rooted in frustration:
“Today I will show them. I
WANT that house” There is no
transparency as in an auction.
Everything is held close to the
chest.
One of my buyer clients, also
recently involved in several bidding
wars, complains about the lack of
transparency. Personally, I agree. I
would support legislation that
eliminates this lack. With
knowledge of the highest price
offered on a property on which
there are competing offers, an
interested buyer will rightly be in a
position to decide whether or not
to throw his hat in the ring.
4

eScoop – Issue 3 July 2015
Don’t Be At Risk Of Not
Being Found Online!
By Liza Hess-Rodrigues, Co-Owner, MAWAZO Marketing
As of April 21st, Google started "punishing" websites
that are not mobile-friendly. This means that if your
website is not found to be usable on smart phones,
your website will fall dramatically lower on the
search results list.
Google uses various criteria to judge the mobilefriendliness
of your website, such as:
you. However, this does not appear to be a very high
priority offence, as we have come across many
websites with this issue but they are still found to be
mobile-friendly.
Setting of the viewport: In simplest terms,
a viewport controls how a webpage is displayed on a
mobile device. If the viewport is not set to adjust to
the width of the screen being used, then it will default
to the width of a desktop screen.
These are a few elements that are assessed by Google
when showing search results. They are not difficult
attributes to address when developing a website, and
in many cases existing websites can be easily
modified to ensure they become mobile-friendly. So,
don't wait and risk losing exposure and online sales!
For more from MAWAZO Marketing visit our
website at www.mawazo.ca
Tri-fold Brochure Layout
By Nigel Wrench, Owner at Printing Depot
1. Front Cover
Size of text: If your website simply scales to the size
of the mobile screen, then chances are the text
becomes much too small to read. Yes, it is possible to
zoom in, but this requires extra effort from your
website visitor. This is a punishable offence to
websites by Google.
Proximity of links: If the website's layout is lost
because of the screen size, often links appear too
close together, or content overlaps. Another
punishable offence.
Content width compared to screen: If the content
appears wider than the screen, Google will punish
The front cover should be visually appealing and
provide enough content to invite the reader to open
the piece and read more. Many companies simply
rely on the logo, company name, a great “tag line”
that sums up their products/services. This is the
approach we recommend. Some companies want to
bullet some items on the front, but remember that
space is limited. You can easily go overboard and
ruin the piece with too much clutter.
2. Back cover
Don’t put anything on the back cover other than
contact information. This is the panel that people are
least likely to read, so if you put an important
message there, it will be lost. If you own a small
company, you may want to consider just listing
phone/fax numbers, web site address, and email
contacts and leaving the physical address off. This
gives your brochure more shelf life if you move.
Continued Page 6
5

eScoop – Issue 3 July 2015
General Brochure Guidelines
When preparing your text, keep it short and sweet. The
reader should be able to grasp the main points by simply
glancing through the piece. If you bury your messages in
dense text, the reader may simply decide that it will be
too much work to read your brochure and just throw it
away.
• Speak directly to the potential customer. “We
help you”
• Use headings and subheadings to group ideas and
help the reader focus on items that are of interest
to him or her.
Your brochure front cover should be
visually appealing with rich content
that invites the reader to open the
piece and read more
• Avoid industry jargon and acronyms, even if you
are sending to industry people. Use clear language
that everyone can understand.
Cont. Tri-fold Brochure Layout
Cont. Page 5
3. Inside front panel
This is the most important panel of the piece. We
recommend that you use it to summarize why the
customer should choose you. It is also a good
location for a glowing testimonial. While this is the
most important panel, we recommend that you
write it last. By writing the inside spread first, you
will have a better idea of what you want to
summarize on the inside front panel. The inside
front panel also is a great place for your phone
number and/or web site address.
4. Inside three-panel spread
When you open the piece fully, you have three
full panels to write a complete description of your
company and what it does. Here are some ideas to
get you going.
• Start with a one or two sentence description
of what your company does. Try to word it
in a way that makes the reader feel that he
or she would be “smart” for choosing you.
• Provide a list of your products and services.
Keep each item short and save the lengthy
descriptions for your web site or for sell
sheets.
• Write a paragraph or two for each of your
competitive advantages. This is more
important than providing long boring
descriptions of each of your products or
services. Customers want to know why they
should choose you over your competitors.
For example, you may sell the same kind of
widgets as your competitor, but your widgets
are of a higher quality or can be quickly
customized to the customer’s needs.
• Tell the reader how you typically work with
your clients. Customers like to know up front
what the process is that you will take.
• Refer the reader to your web site for detailed
information. If you do not have a web site,
invite the reader to call you directly to discuss
his or her needs or to request detailed “sell
sheets”
For more information about printing your business
material visit our website at www.printingdepot.ca